Clothes drier



3 Sheets-Sheet 1 fiiflEHZbFE Qter Eduard Gala fig (I'M/'10s E fiqzyellslerlz wy /W F11 5 P. E. GELDHOF ET AL CLOTHES DRIER 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 000000000 oooooooo 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 000000000 000000000 OOOOOOOO March 27, 1951 Flled Jan 9, 1946 March 1951 P. E. GELDHOF ET AL 2,546,925

CLOTHES DRIER Filed Jan. 9, 1946 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 E 2 [hi E27 [0P5 Peter Eduard eldfiaf diaries Z fiioryemzern March 27, 1951 P. E. GELDHOF ET AL 2,546,925

CLOTHES DRIER 27g 79%; /M H2575 Patented Mar. 27, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CLOTHES DRIER Application January 9, 1946, Serial No. 640,053

3 Glaims.

This invention relates to a clothes drier and more particularly to a small compact unitary clothes drier of the type which is suitable for ordinary household use in conjunction with any laundry machine or washing apparatus.

One type of clothes drier which is supplied for household use includes a rotating drum through which heated air is circulated. In any clothes drier of this general category it is necessary to have a .door through'whic'h the clothes may be introduced and withdrawn from the rotating drum. One of the diliiculties in the past has been that the friction of the clothes against the door while the drum is rotated causes a great deal of lint to be produced and necessarily is harsh on the clothes which are being dried. One of the principal features and Objects of the present invention is to provide a clothes drier having a novel door construction in which means is provided for overcoming this disadvantage which has heretofore been present in clothes driers.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel clothes drier having a rotating panel on the inner side of the doort hroug'h which the clothes are introduced whereby the rotating panel rotates with'the clothes and prevents rough frictional wear o'nthe clothes.

Another and further object of the present invention is to provide a novel cabinet structure for clothes or article containing apparatus.

' The novel features which we believe to be characteristic of our invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. Our invention itself, however, both as to its organization, manner of construction and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages there- 'of, may best be understood by reference to the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is an isometric View of a clothes drier embodying the novel features and characteristics of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a side elevational'view with part of the outer shell broken away and with certain of the parts in section;

Figure 3 is an enlarged s'ectional'view of the door and its relationship with the drum as shown in Figure 2 of the drawings;

Figure 4 is an enlarged front elevational view of the door with the lower part thereof broken away to show the revolving plate mounted on the door;

Figure 5 is an enlarged vertical sectional view 'of a modified form of door structure;

Figure -6'is'a rear view of the casting forming the door in Figure 5 '(on a reduced scale from Figure 5) as well as the revolving disk;

Figure 7 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the door hinge shown in the lower part of Figure '5; and

Figure 8 is an enlarged fragmentary view-of the outer door frame and outer casting.

Referring now to the first embodiment of the invention illustrated in Figures -1 to 4 of the drawings, there is shown therein a clothes drier Hi including an outer shell or cabinet H in which is mounteda rotating drum I2 which is arranged to receive the clothes or other articles to be dried. The drum I2 is mounted for rotation about 111011-- zontal axis and is arranged to be driven by a motor I3 througha belt drive Id. The particular means for heating the air and circulating the air through the structure forms no part of the present invention, and for the purposes of this case it will be sufiicient to say that vheating means is located in a tubular shell l5 and that a fan (not shown) is arranged to be'driven by the motor through the belt drive I 6, the fan being mounted 'coaxial ly with the drum shaft H which is driven through the belt drive it by virtue of avpulle'y l8 mounted on the shaft I I.

The shell ll 'of the casing I0 is provided with an opening in the front wall thereof opposite the open end of the drum I2. This opening is defined by a flange l9 which extends first rear- Wardly as at 20, then toward the center of the opening as at 25, and finally rearwardly again as at 22. The drum [2 has an end wall 23 which is provided with a forwardly turned lip 24 which J's-inside of the rearwardly extending flange 22 of the shell II. Since the drum l2 rotates with respect "to the casing II the lip 2 is slightly spaced from the rearwardly extending flange 22.

In order to have access to the drum I2 so as to be able to introduce clothes and other articles into the drum through the opening defined by the lip 24, a door 25 is provided for the cabinet Iii. This door 25 is arranged to be nested within the flange portion 20 of the shell H so as to be seated substantially against the flange portion 2 I. 'While a slight space is shown between the door and this flange portion 2!, as is evidenced by the spacing between the rearwardly 'turned' flahge 26 on the door 25, it will be'un'derstood that this will enable a gasket or rubber cushioning element to be disposed there The cushioning element, however, has been omitted for purposes of clarity in illustrating the structural features of the device.

'The door Z-S may be of any given shap'e-"from the standpoint of its general outline, and for purposes of illustration has been indicated as being substantially square. Within the central portion of this door 25 is a relatively large opening defined by a rearwardly extending flange 21 which terminates in an inwardly facing lip 28. Secured to this inwardly facing lip is a spider 29 which may, for example, be composed of a plurality of radially inwardly extending arms 39. In the center of the spider 29 is mounted a bearing 3i in which a journal member 32 is journaled. The journal member 32 is carried on a perforated plate 33 which extends completely across the rear of the circular opening defined by the rearwardly extending flange 2? of the door 25. It will thus be apparent that the perforated plate 33 is arranged for rotation within the bearing 3| carried by the spider 29 on the door 25.

In the particular embodiment of the invention illustrated in Figures 1 to 4 of the drawings, the perforated plate 33 is in the form of a sheet having a large number of holes 3 1 punched therein. The side of the plate 33, which isthe upper side of the plate when the punchings are made, is disposed so as to face toward the drum I2. This preventsany sharp or ragged edges being disposed on the side where-theclothes are located. The perforated plate 33 has a forwardly turned outer marginal flange 35 on which a packing ring or gasket 36 is carried. The gasket 35, when the door 25 is closed, is squeezed into snug engagement with the forwardly extending lip 2 of the drum i2. It will therefore be apparent that since the axis of the bearing 3! is coaxial with the shaft ll of the drum E2, the perforated plate 33 rotates with the drum. There is therefore no relative motion of the perforated plate 33 with respect to the drum i2 and hence harmful frictional engagement between the door of the casing H] and the clothes carried in the drum I2 is substantially eliminated. There will, of course, be a certain amount of lint removed from the clothes due to their fluffing around within the drying drum :2. This lint will, of course, be carried by the forced circulation of air produced by the fan (not shown) rotated by the fan belt it through the perforations 343 in the disk 33. In order to catch this lint and prevent the same from being thrown about the room in which the drier is located, a lint catcher in the form of a fine screen 31 is carried in a screen frame 38 which may be fitted in along the shoulder provided by the rearwardly extending flange 2'! of the door 25. This frame 38 is limited in its inward movement by a stop means in the form of protuberances 39 formed on the rearwardly extending flange portion 2?. The screen 31 has a retaining ring Ali) forced within the rearwardly extending flange portion 4! of the frame 38. Upper and lower knobs or handle members 42 and are provided for withdrawing the screen frame 38 and screen 3'! from the door 25 to remove the lint from between the screen 3'! and the perforated plate 33 after the machine has been in operation for a while.

The door 25 may be hinged in any suitable manner (not shown), it being preferably hinged at the bottom and having a handle portion 413 at the top for effecting an opening of the door.

In Figures 5 to 8 of the drawings we have illustrated a modified form of the present invention. As is shown in Figure 5, the shell H is provided with an opening defined by a rearwardly extending flange portion 20, a radially inwardly extending flange portion 2i and a rearwardly extending lip 22. In this particular instance the radially inward extending flange portion 2! is shown as being slightly greater in extent than that shown in the first form of the invention, but it is to be understood that this may be varied through wide limits without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention The front wall 23 of the drum i2 is provided with a forwardly extending lip 25 having a rubber yieldable gasket or bead 65 against which the rotatable member 16 is carried by the door 25 is seated.

The door 25, in this illustrated embodiment of the invention, is in the form of a casting 47 having a plurality of vertical louvres or openings 48 therethrough, through which the air circulates. The casting 4? is secured in an outer door frame member it by means of clamping fingers 53 which are bolted or otherwise secured to the casting as at El (see Figure 8).

A bearing supporting member 52 is bolted as at 53 to the casting 37, this bearing retaining member being axially bored as is clearly shown in Figure 5. Within this axial bore of the member 52 is disposed a bearing sleeve 54 which is arranged to receive a stud shaft 55 which extends forwardly from a base portion 56 which is riveted as at 5? to the casting 45. The stud shaft 55 is provided with a thrust bearing in the form of a steel ball 58 which is disposed between the conical surface of the inner end of the bore in the member 52 and the end of the stud shaft 55. The stud shaft 55 is retained in place within the bearing 54 by means of a retaining bolt 59 which has a reduced end 5? which extends into a recess portion 6! of the stud shaft 55.

lhe casting 46 is in the form of a very shallow cone which is provided with alarge number of openings 62 extending axially therethrough. It will thus be apparent that the central portion of the casting 45 extends further into the drum l2 than does the outer portion thereof. This casting 55 is also provided with a forwardly extending flange portion 63 which terminates in a radially outwardly extending lip portion 64 which is seated against the gasket 45 of the revolving drum i2 when the door 25 is closed.

As may be seen best in Figure '7 of the draw ings, the door 25 is hinged along its bottom edge by a pair of hinges 65. These hinges 65 are spot welded or otherwise suitably secured to the radially inwardly extending flange portion 2% of the shell l I and are riveted as at 66 to the casting 47 of the door 25. The rivet heads are ground down to make a fiat surface to improve the appearance on the outside of the door and to present a fiat surface on the inside of the door, whereby the door may be used as a shelf when it is. open.

It will be understood that means is provided so that the door, when lowered to a horizontal position, will remain in that position while clothes are withdrawn from or introduced into the drum i2. It will further be understood that when the door 25 is closed the lip portion 6 of the casting $8 is tightly seated against "he gasket 45 on the drum i2 whereby the casting 56 rotates with the drum l2.

From the above description it will be apparent that by providing a revolvable panel on the inner face of the door of a clothes drier of the drum rotating type, frictional wear on the clothes or other articles being dried is very substantially reduced. It will further be observed from the above description, that a novel housing structure is provided for clothes driers or other similar types of housing structures.

While we have shown certain particular embodiments of our invention and have described particular methods of operation, it will, of course, be understood that we do not wish to be limited thereto, since many modifications may be made, and we therefore contemplate, to cover all such modifications as fall within the scope of our invention, as defined by the appended claims.

We claim as our invention:

1. In a clothes drier of the rotatable drum type wherein heated air is passed through the drum while clothes are being tumbled therein, the combination which includes a housing, a clothes drum mounted for rotation in said housing, sa d drum having an end wall with an axially disposed opening therein, a door in said housing opposite the open end of said drum, said door having a main frame portion and a perforated inner wall member rotatably mounted on said main frame portion, the axis of rotation of said inner Wall member being coaxial with the axis of rotation of said drum, and a screen having a relatively fine mesh with respect to the perforations in said wall member mounted in said main frame exteriorly of said inner wall member, whereby frictional resistance between said door and the clothes is minimized by the rotation of said inner Wall member, and lint is trapped between said inner wall member and said screen.

2. In a clothes drier of the rotatable drum type wherein heated air is passed through the drum while clothes are being tumbled therein, the combination which includes a housing, a clothes drum mounted for rotation in said housing, said drum having an end wall with an axially dis-' posed opening therein, a door in said housing opposite the open end of said drum, said door having a main frame portion and a perforated inner wall member rotatably mounted on said main frame portion, the axis of rotation of said inner wall member being coaxial with the axis of rotation of said drum, and a screen removably mounted in said main frame exteriorly of said inner wall member and spaced therefrom, said screen having relatively small openings therein as compared with the perforations in said inner wall member, whereby frictional resistance between said door and the clothes is minimized by the rotation of said inner wall member and lint is trapped between said inner wall member and said screen.

3. In a clothes drier of the rotatable drum type wherein heated air is passed through the drum while clothes are being tumbled therein, the combination which includes a housing, a clothes drum mounted for rotation in said housing, said drum having an end wall with an axially disposed opening therein, said housing having an opening therein opposite the open end of said drum, said housing having a recessed shoulder adjacent said opening therein, adoor mounted for movement into and out of said opening in said housing and arranged to be seated when in closed position on said shoulder, whereby the exterior surface of said door is substantially flush with the exterior surface of said housing, said door having a main frame portion and a perforated inner wall member rotatably mounted on said main frame portion, the axis of rotation of said inner wall member being coaxial with the axis of rotation of said drum, said door also having a filter screen outer panel portion in the plane of the exterior surface of said door.

PETER EDUARD GELDHOF.

CHARLES E. MORGENSTERN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,358,599 White Nov. 9, 1920 1,687,829 Clark Oct. 16, 1928 1,717,178 Altorfer June 11, 1929 1,720,851 Nelson et a1 July 16, 1929 2,048,743 Huebsch et a1 July 28, 1936 2,074,508 Hetzer Mar. 23, 1937 2,105,248 Johnson Jan. 11, 1938 2,262,186 Lindberg Nov. 11, 1941 2,296,265 Russell Sept. 22, 1942 2,372,790 Morgenstern Apr. 3, 1945 2,438,995 Forney Apr. 6, 1948 

